Enemy Of Our Life - Panorama

Who is your WORST enemy in your life? I want you to ponder this question for a few seconds. What is the first thing that comes to mind? Can you take a guess at it? Let us give you a hint. It is not a physical entity. It is not even an external entity. It is internal to you. It is a trait that is common to all human beings, in fact, all living beings. It is nothing but fear.

The one single entity that most often keeps us from achieving our full potential is fear- more specifically, fear of failure. No matter how hard we work, no matter how well we handle our jobs, no matter how good we are at it, somewhere deep inside, we have that slight doubt that we are not good enough. This doubt manifests into a fear of failure whenever we take up a challenge. We worry that we will fail to achieve our goal and our friends, family, colleagues, acquaintances, even random strangers will see us for the fake people we are. We will, forever, lose their respect for us. We will become someone who cannot be trusted with positions of responsibility.

This fear of failure then leads us to do many things, such as avoid taking up tasks that are challenging , or try to think up excuses we will make if we fail to achieve this task, even before we have actually started with the task itself. Needless to say, this negative mindset doesn’t help us in achieving our full potential.

The fear of failure is such an ancient hurdle that it even finds in the Bhagavad Gita. Here is a translation of one such quotation:

“You have control over doing your respective duty, but no control or claim over the result. Fear of failure, from being emotionally attached to the fruit of work, it the greatest impediment to success because it robs efficiency by constantly disturbing the equanimity of mind.”

Fear stops us from becoming our best. It quickly becomes our biggest weakness and acts as an obstacle to building up on our strengths. Our fear can overshadow our confidence in our strengths. It is our fear of failure that can stop us from giving our best to the task at hand. If we overpower one fear, another is always ready to grip us. As human beings, we can never be free of fear. Many a times we create our own fear. Most of us live our lives under one or more fears. Fear of failure, fear of losing our loved ones, fear of our boss, parents, or elders, fear of being unsuccessful and fear of death. We are not able to do what we are capable of doing only because of this deadly disease called fear.

Some specialists categorize fear as an unpleasant emotion or thought. Indeed it is nothing more than that. Even though our fear becomes real to us in our imagination, it is really nothing but a feeling. And this feeling becomes one of the greatest impediments to our growth. The element of fear adversely influences our actions and decisions. Our fear becomes the biggest cause of us undermining our abilities and, in turn, losing our confidence.

As per Swami Vivekanand:-

“Be not afraid of anything. You will do marvelous work. The moment you fear, you are nobody. It is fear that is the great cause of misery in the world. It is fear that is the greatest of all superstitions. It is fear that is the cause of our woes, and it is fearlessness that brings heaven even in a moment.”

There are situation in life that scare us and make us want to escape, but if we do, they will chase us down and take over our life. In such situations, our thoughts become dominated by the things that we are afraid of and our actions become timid and cautious, not allowing us to reach our full potential.

Fear is nothing. Fear is not reality. The moment you decide to stand up and face it, it disappears, leaving you free to chase your dreams. Simply by standing up to your fear and facing it boldly, you can conquer it. As human beings, we can never really be free of fear, but we have to learn to get pas it.